clan for a short while, even though he was only one against many. His wife was not so lucky – the raiders pulled her off her horse and proceeded to disembowel her in front of her husband’s eyes, allegedly drinking her blood and ripping her limbs apart with their teeth. It was only a matter of time before the husband met the same fate, but luckily for him, a party of travellers who had also been to the fair were riding along a short way behind and they now came into view. The Bean clan took to their heels, but when the fairgoers came nearer, they saw the bloody work that the bestial murderers had done, and the surviving husband gave them a blow-by-blow account of what had happened. The Bean clan were revealed at last for the gruesome cannibals they were.
News of the dreadful crime made its way to the Scottish court, and it was not long before King James VI himself resolved to put an end to the clan’s reign of terror. Assembling an army of 400 soldiers, together with a team of bloodhounds, he rode up to the cave where the Bean family lived. The soldiers poured into the cave, surprising the inmates, and found a hideous scene there. The clan were crouching like animals among piles of human remains, some of them still chewing on the severed, bloody arms and limbs of their victims. It was later estimated that the Beans had murdered and consumed over 1,000 victims, possibly more, during the twenty-five years or so that they had lived there.
The soldiers rounded up all the members of the Bean clan and took them to the Tolbooth Jail in Edinburgh. From there, they were sent on to jails in Leith and Glasgow. So outraged were the public by the story of the murders, that the authorities did not bother to give the Bean family a trial, but decided to execute them in the most cruel ways possible. The men were hung, drawn and quartered; this meant that their hands and feet were cut off while they were still alive, so that they bled slowly to death. The women and children were forced to watch them die, and then burned alive themselves. Thus, the clan met their end as violently as they had lived.
T HE ‘ H AIRY T REE’
There is also a story about one of Sawney Bean’s daughters, who is said to have escaped from the cave and set up home in the town of Girvan, hiding her true identity from the local populace and living as an ordinary citizen for some years. However, when the family were captured, her history was made public, and she was pursued by a lynch mob. They hanged her from the branches of a tree that she had planted, known as the ‘Hairy Tree’. This tree was apparently situated in Dalrymple Street, and according to local superstition, the corpse of the daughter could be heard swinging from it on windy nights for many years after the hanging.
F ACT OR FICTION?
Today, many historians believe that, although there may be some truth to the legend of Sawney Bean, in all probability the story has been much exaggerated. They point out that although the Newgate Calendar cites the story, there are no other accounts of him in any other historical records of the period. Also, it has been pointed out that if the entire Bean family had lived only by murdering and eating human beings for twenty-five years, they would have consumed far more than 1,000 people, and would in fact have decimated the population of the area. There is also some dispute as to the date of Sawney Bean’s reign of terror; some broadsheets reported it as having taken place during the reign of James VI, while others allege that it was centuries before. Whatever the truth, in all likelihood the story was exaggerated, since the broadsheets – like our own newspapers today – constantly sensationalised events to entertain their readers.
Because the Sawney Bean story first appeared in British chapbooks, which were like the tabloids of today, some believe that it was made up by English political propagandists in the wake of the Jacobite
News of the dreadful crime made its way to the Scottish court, and it was not long before King James VI himself resolved to put an end to the clan’s reign of terror. Assembling an army of 400 soldiers, together with a team of bloodhounds, he rode up to the cave where the Bean family lived. The soldiers poured into the cave, surprising the inmates, and found a hideous scene there. The clan were crouching like animals among piles of human remains, some of them still chewing on the severed, bloody arms and limbs of their victims. It was later estimated that the Beans had murdered and consumed over 1,000 victims, possibly more, during the twenty-five years or so that they had lived there.
The soldiers rounded up all the members of the Bean clan and took them to the Tolbooth Jail in Edinburgh. From there, they were sent on to jails in Leith and Glasgow. So outraged were the public by the story of the murders, that the authorities did not bother to give the Bean family a trial, but decided to execute them in the most cruel ways possible. The men were hung, drawn and quartered; this meant that their hands and feet were cut off while they were still alive, so that they bled slowly to death. The women and children were forced to watch them die, and then burned alive themselves. Thus, the clan met their end as violently as they had lived.
T HE ‘ H AIRY T REE’
There is also a story about one of Sawney Bean’s daughters, who is said to have escaped from the cave and set up home in the town of Girvan, hiding her true identity from the local populace and living as an ordinary citizen for some years. However, when the family were captured, her history was made public, and she was pursued by a lynch mob. They hanged her from the branches of a tree that she had planted, known as the ‘Hairy Tree’. This tree was apparently situated in Dalrymple Street, and according to local superstition, the corpse of the daughter could be heard swinging from it on windy nights for many years after the hanging.
F ACT OR FICTION?
Today, many historians believe that, although there may be some truth to the legend of Sawney Bean, in all probability the story has been much exaggerated. They point out that although the Newgate Calendar cites the story, there are no other accounts of him in any other historical records of the period. Also, it has been pointed out that if the entire Bean family had lived only by murdering and eating human beings for twenty-five years, they would have consumed far more than 1,000 people, and would in fact have decimated the population of the area. There is also some dispute as to the date of Sawney Bean’s reign of terror; some broadsheets reported it as having taken place during the reign of James VI, while others allege that it was centuries before. Whatever the truth, in all likelihood the story was exaggerated, since the broadsheets – like our own newspapers today – constantly sensationalised events to entertain their readers.
Because the Sawney Bean story first appeared in British chapbooks, which were like the tabloids of today, some believe that it was made up by English political propagandists in the wake of the Jacobite
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